Ayneha is an alphabet created by Mahamadou Issiaka Maiga in 2026 as an alternative way to write the Songhay languages, a group of Nilo-Saharan languages spoken in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Benin, Algeria and Nigeria.
Ayneha was designed from scratch to fit Songhay phonetics and includes 22 consonants, 5 base vowels, nasalized and open vowel variants, gemination (doubled letters) and mute/bare consonant forms, plus a set of 10 original digits. It is based on the standardized Songhay alphabet as defined by the Direction nationale de l'alphabétisation fonctionnelle et de la linguistique appliquée (DNAFLA - National Directorate of Functional Literacy and Applied Linguistics), the national literacy agency in Mali.
Download a script chart for Ayneha (Excel)
Download a font for Ayneha
The numbers are in Koyra Chiini (koyra ciini / كࣷيْرَ ٺِينِ), a Southern Songhay language spoken in southern Mali.
Maali ni cayɛno ga,
Ni annema se,
Ir yɛdda ni kɔddɔro ga,
Ir kul ga cɛr di.
Jama fo, Anniya fo, Addin fo,
Afriki marga sabbu se,
Ndi iberi farati ka bangey,
Kunahɛrɛ wala tarey.
Ir mo ma kangey jejew bon,
Ir ba buyã nda hawi.
À ton appel Mali
Pour ta prospérité
Fidèle à ton destin
Nous serons tous unis
Un peuple, un but, une foi
Pour une Afrique Unie
Si l'ennemi découvre son front
Au dedans ou au dehors
Debout sur les remparts
Nous sommes résolus de mourir
Le Mali - l'hymne national du Mali
At your call, Mali
For your prosperity
Loyal towards your destiny
We will be all united,
One people, one goal, one faith,
For a united Africa
If the enemy should show himself
Inside or outside,
Standing on the ramparts,
We are ready to die.
The Mali - National anthem of Mali
Information about Ayneha
https://aynehasonghay.blogspot.com/
Information about the Songhay languages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songhay_languages
Constructed scripts for: Ainu | Arabic | Chinese languages | Dutch | English | French | Hawaiian | Hungarian | Japanese | Kadazandusun | Korean | Lingala | Malay & Indonesian | Persian | Tagalog / Filipino | Russian | Sanskrit | Spanish | Taino | Turkish | Vietnamese | Welsh | Other natural languages | Colour-based scripts | Tactile scripts | Phonetic/universal scripts | Constructed scripts for constructed languages | Adaptations of existing alphabets | Fictional alphabets | Magical alphabets | A-Z index | How to submit a constructed script
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